This was something that I saw on Facebook and thought I would love to be involved in I decided that the best option for me would be to become a ‘check in and chat’ volunteer. As a volunteer I was to provide telephone support to a person who is isolating. This would mean making phone calls ,any time during the day, to ensure the well-being of an isolated person, allowing you to identify any practical support they may require or notify relevant people if there were any concerns for that person.

It was easy to build up rapport with the people I spoke to as they had all asked for someone to contact them so they were expecting a call. Throughout the role I have spoken to many lovely people who are just glad to have a chat with someone, the calls range from a few seconds to check that all is ok to my longest call ever just over 3 hours !! (needed a gin after that one) I have learnt so much about peoples circumstances good and bad through this role and feel that in some small way I am helping people to get through this very difficult time.

But also, in the day as I am generally alone it is a chance for me to talk to people and feel that this has passed the time for me and made me feel that I was dong something useful. I have learnt a lot about people through these calls, and just hope once all this is over, they can go back to some kind of normality, I really want the lady I speak to everyday to get to meet her first great granddaughter for the first time, the elderly gent gets to celebrate his special birthday with his family , and everyone gets to go on the holidays and adventures that they want to.

For examples of how to look after your mental health or for ideas on how to carry out random acts of kindness why not visit the Mental Health Foundations website at:
https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/